For a very good reason, we adopted a ’7 a.m. Rule’ when it comes to video games.
There’s nothing wrong with playing video games, in my opinion. As long as kids limit their ‘screen time’ to a healthy amount (in our house that’s 30 minutes at a time), some games allow for a creative release for kiddos.
However, on the weekends and on vacation, certain kiddos (mine!) will wake up at ungodly dark hours of the morning to play their games. Ha! Not under my roof, dude.
Sometime this past summer I noticed that The Boy was getting up far earlier than is necessary. I’d catch him in the dark living room, game controller in hand, all zombie-looking with eyes glues to the boob tube, sometimes before 5 a.m.! So I initiated the 7 a.m. Rule and it has been working out well for us.
The rule is: No games before 7 in the a.m., and obviously no games before school on weekdays. Occasionally he’ll have a friend over who will wake up at the butt-crack of dawn wanting to play video games. But the rule applies to friends, too. So they have no choice but to get a healthy breakfast and find something else to do until 7.
I think the rule is reasonable. In fact, I think my kid is pretty lucky to be allowed to play video games at all. Do you let your kids play video games? Share in the comments.
